Hi all
I’ve been reading steadily the two threads regarding Aztec airbrushes, and I’m in a little bit of a panic now. ANyways, I’ve been using an Aztec for not too long now, and am fairly happy with it. However, so far, I’ve only been cleaning the nozzle by soaking it in lightly soapy water for about 10 minutes after I use it, then rinsing and that’s it. I only use tamiya acrylics with it.
I do not have any tamiya thinner, nor am I about to go pick it up right now, since it’s a busy week. However, I do have quite a bit of model master acrylic cleaner. I was wondering whether it would be safe (and effective) to soak the nozzle in this to clean it?
Rubbing alcohol would be better to use if at all possible, but if all you have left is the Model Master Thinner, it shouldn’t harm your nozzle. I had an Aztek and I soaked the body in MM Thinner overnight, and it destroyed the trigger action. So, definately don’t do that. I wouldn’t soak the Nozzle for too long though…only as much as necessary.
Aztec suggests not soaking the airbush body at all, so I’ve refrained from doing that. If anything, I’ll swirl the end in some soapy water and rinse under the tap for a minute or two. So far, it’s been working great. it’s the nozzles that I’m worried about, since I can see some paint buildup. Also, the direction of the spray has been affected as well, which I’m guessing paint buildup can also be the cause of
I have used an Aztek for many years now and I once “forgot” an Aztek tip in lacquer thinner (which is pretty aggressive stuff) for a period of 3 weeks and when I pulled it out of the pot it was in perfect condition and I continued to use it long afterwards without any change in performance. The bottom line is: your tips have to be squeeky clean. I take them appart to clean them.
Testors claims that they resist to pretty much all known chemicals and it seems to be the case.
As for the body, avoit soaking it. I use Q-tips and a folded over pipe cleaner dipped in thinner to clean around the trigger needle pin where in goes into the body while giving a back an forth motion to the trigger to move the pin in and out as I clean the pin.
As far as cleaning solutions go, I use Alcohol (70% Isopropyl) for when Tamiya acrylics are not dried yet and use lacquer thinner for when its dried up as well as for enamels.
Happy painting !
Thanks for the advice viper11. The airbrush is fairly new, so is still clean, but paint is slowly starting to build on the inside of the nozzle. I think I’ll take your advice and just use the alcohol to clean the nozzle, since I use tamiya acrylics exclusively (so far anyways, maybe start using MM acryl soon)
Another good, cheap cleaner is to mix 2 parts filtered water, 1 part Simple Green cleaner and 1 part Windex. This cleans acrylics pretty good.
I don’t think soap and water will do much to hardened paint deposits.
Mike
No problem in soaking the nozzle in very strong solvents. The thing with the Aztek nozzles is that once paint dries inside the nozzle then it is fairly hard to clean. Just don’t let the airbrush sit before flushing out the paint. Best thing is after an airbrush session to blow it out with alcohol until you don’t see any pigment coming out first. That will take care of most of your cleaning. Testors has a cleaner that is very nasty but works pretty well. I soak the nozzles in lacquer thinner. The Tamiya thinner is too expensive to use as a cleaner.
The airbrush body should not be cleaned with strong solvents. There is a seal inside that will be damaged if you soak it in strong solvents. That will ruin the airbrush.
I like your advice MikeV. I’m not familiar with Simple Green, but windex is great for everything. Fantastic too. It smells almost exactly like the Model Master acrylic cleaner, albeit MM is weaker. I did a couple of tests between the two, and they act almost the same.
Lacquer thinner…that will dissolve dried acrylic in no time, I swear by it…though it stinks.
Works all the time
Alcohol and soapy water just doesn’t do it when the paint is dried and crusted.
As soon as youre done painting, crank up the pressure and flush-flush- flush with alcohol BEFORE it dries ! Then dissasemble and clean thoroughly (still with alcohol, but dont wait till the residue dries).
If you let it dry or residues accumulate due to improper cleaning, then its a job for mister Laquer thinner .
Cheers and happy painting.
thanks viper11. I pertty much figured that nothing short of that would even scratch dried up paint